XSquad
by Thorfin
Summary: A new group of mutants joins Xavier's School of the gifted and begin their adventures.
1. An Arrest

I own nothing of Marvel Comics. The known characters used here are only as background to give my new characters some color. This is based off of the original X-Men series, none of the new ones.

An average American family is sitting in front of the TV watching the evening news. The familiar tune begins and the television shows the familiar face of the reporter.

"Good evening," she begins, "this is Quira Jackson for United News with this evening's news. Our top story tonight is that of a five-year mutant hunt being brought to a close. Many of you will recall five years ago a piece this station did on the tragic death of a suburban family caused by their mutant son." The television now shows the picture of a young twenty-year-old male with dirty brown hair, an unkempt beard, and dull blue eyes. "Five years ago, the mutant shown here, Johnathan Powell, was accused of murdering his parents and sister using his mutant powers." 

The television now shows a still frame of a suburban neighborhood. Some of the houses are on fire with firefighters at work and most have shattered windows. In the center of the picture is a crater in between two houses. "This picture was taken by our own news helicopter shortly after what was described as an 'earth shaking explosion'. Witnesses reported seeing the family arguing through the windows when a bright light emitted from the house, followed by a bright sphere of energy engulfing the house. After a few moments the sphere began to contract on itself showing the smoking crater left behind. Witnesses say that they saw the sphere completely contract itself into the shape of a human being hovering about where the center of the sphere had been. After which the light faded, showing the human shape to be the sixteen-year-old son of the family, Johnathan Powell.

"Johnathan fled the scene, meeting no resistance from the neighbors, and eluded authorities until earlier today, when he viciously attacked a small child and innocent passersby in a car. The mother of the child said that her daughter was playing in the street when she, the mother, noticed a rather dirty individual walking along the sidewalk. She called out for her daughter to come inside. As the helpless four-year old girl began to cross the street, the strange individual, now identified as Johnathan Powell, stretched out his hand and emitted an energy blast aimed at the child. Fortunately for the child, a car was passing through the street and accidentally got in the way of the blast. The blast flipped the car on its roof and ignited a fire. The shockwave from the blast also knocked the little girl into a street lamp, giving her a concussion.

"Powell charged for the helpless girl, but her mother got to her first and began to beg that Powell let her and her daughter live. Neighbors saw what had happened and made a call to the mutant registration hotline. Sentinels were sent immediately allowing for the capture of Powell after five years. Many of you will remember that the sentinels were decommissioned years ago and their production was halted. The sentinel that helped out today is one of a few left in service to the public. 

"Fortunately no one was seriously injured as firefighters arrived on the scene soon after to control the car fire. A new weapon against mutant violence received its first field test today in this emergency. The Inhibitor Rifle, which not only temporarily deactivates mutant powers, but also launches an adhesive which prevents the mutant from using his arms or legs." Powell is shown being carried and loaded into a police wagon. His arms are bound behind his back with his legs bound at the ankles. A piece of metal connects the arm restraints and the leg restraints, arching Powell backwards. A mask made of the same material as the restraints covers Powell's face accept for a grill over the mouth for breathing.

"If anyone should see mutant activity and they are unsure if the mutant is registered, call the mutant registration hotline at 1-800-555-MUTY and report it. Remember that it is better to be safe than sorry."

The television turns off, but not the same one. This television set is in a large and spacious office. Sitting behind his desk, the owner of the set leans back in his chair, crosses his hands over his chest, and softly chuckles to himself. "No more mutants. He, he, he, he."


	2. New Comers

"Well, here come the newbies," said the redheaded girl at the window as Scott and Jean Summers drove their car through the front gate of Xavier's School for the Gifted. A young man with black hair walked up to look out the window over her shoulder. "Oh come on, Mary. Not more than three months ago, we were the newbies. The only reason why we're not any more, is because these arrived."

"Let her enjoy not being the rookie for a moment, Lucas. After all, the feeling will really last only a moment or two." The third student looking out the window was a young girl of medium height with long black hair. "Yeah, yeah, yeah, Sam. At least we'll have some more people in our Danger Room sessions. Come on, let's go meet them." The trio left the upper sitting room and walked down the staircase to the front foyer. As they entered the foyer, the front door opened as Scott and Jean entered with two young people, a girl with long blond hair and what could only be guessed to be a boy. The reason for the confusion was that the young man was completely covered from head to toe with clothes.

Scott saw the trio standing there. "Oh, good. You're all here. Mary, Sam, Lucas, this is Caileen and Steve Smith." The boy walked up and shook each of their hands, while the girl stayed behind. "And Steve, Caileen, this is Mary Parker, Samantha Loriao, and Lucas Maringe. They're also students here. In fact, they will be in your class."

Sam walked up to the girl. "I assume that you're Caileen." She stuck out her hand, which Caileen shook without saying anything. Sam looked confused. "What's the matter? Don't tell me that you're shy." Steve looked from Caileen to Sam. "No, she's not shy. She's mute. We think it has something to do with her mutation. Ever since she was about thirteen, she hasn't said a word. Don't worry though, she can sign and I can interpret." Jean put her hand on Caileen's shoulder and said; "Actually, all of you will be learning sign language so you can understand Caileen. In the mean time though, Sam and Mary, why don't you show Caileen where to put her stuff, and Lucas, you can show Steve where he can put his stuff. Everyone here has roommates. After they get unpacked, we want everyone to meet in the library."

After climbing up to their room, Lucas pointed Steve to his bed and where to put his clothes. Lucas looked at Steve's suit with a quizzical look. "I've got to ask you Steve, why are you all covered up like that? It can't possibly be comfortable."

Steve looked around the room and walked toward the window near his bed. "Actually, it's very comfortable. It's made of cotton, so it's very breathable." He began to pull his left glove off. "But I need this suit because of my mutation." He pulled the glove completely off and put his white hand into the sunlight passing through the window. With his right hand he picked a drinking glass sitting on a nightstand. A slight humming filled the room as the glass in Steve's hand started vibrating. Lucas stared as the glass cracked and shattered. "That's not so bad," he said as Steve replaced his glove and began to pick up the pieces. Steve finished cleaning up the glass shards and put them in the trash. "Trust me, Lucas. If more of me were exposed to light it would worse. It also gets worse the longer I stay in light."

"What happens when you're in light?" Steve started to unpack his suitcase and looked at Lucas. "I'm not sure, but I think that somehow my body turns light into sound or something. And it's not just sunlight; it's any light at all. The little amount of light that gets in through this cloth so that I can see just creates a small hum that you don't even hear most of the time."

Lucas was horrified at the thought of not being able to suntan, which was one his favorite hobbies. "Man, that must just suck! You mean that since your powers activated, you haven't been in any light at all? How long has it been?" Steve finished putting his clothes in his closet and put his suitcase under his bed. "It's only been a few months. Luckily Mr. Summers said they found me pretty quickly. He said that here I could learn to control this at least enough to not be a threat if I don't dress like a mummy. So, what's your gift?"

Lucas looked at Steve without opening his mouth. _"Isn't it obvious? I've got one of the oldest and most known powers of all."_ The words echoed inside Steve's mind for a few seconds before he understood. "You're a telepath! You can read minds and stuff like that! But, doesn't it get confusing to listen to everyone at once. I mean how far of a range do you have? How many minds do you hear at once?"

Lucas decided to go back to speech, even though it was slower. It just made people more comfortable. It used to be I could hear everyone, everywhere, all at once. I got lost in it. I didn't know which thoughts were mine and which belonged to other people. I began to think that I would go insane. It only got worse when my dad found out. He's not very…accepting of people different from himself. When the Professor found me and told me he could help me quiet the other voices in my head, I immediately wanted to come here. My mom agreed so that I wouldn't be in danger from my dad anymore. I don't get too many letters from her. The last one said that she was leaving him and filing for a divorce. She told me not to come home. My dad's decided to join an anti-mutant group. Something called the 'Friends of Humanity' or something."

Steve looked away for a moment. "I'm sorry man. I hope your mom got that divorce."

Lucas began to speak when he and Steve heard a voice in their heads.

"Attention students. Attention students. This is Professor Xavier. Would Lucas, Sam, Mary, Caileen, and Steve please report to the library immediately? Thank you."

"Come on," Lucas said, "I'll show you the way."

On the other side of the mansion on the second floor, Sam and Mary were showing Caileen where to hang her clothes. "And if you like to have a bathroom all to yourself," Mary was saying, "you'll have to get up a little early. After about seven o'clock, everyone is up and fighting for room in there. Just so you know, I wake up at six o'clock."

Caileen simply nodded and continued unpacking. Sam sat down on her bed and looked at Caileen. "So, what's your power? Is it really why you can't talk?" Caileen nodded placing her hand on her throat. Then she pointed to her eyes and then pointed to the other side of the room. Mary watched for a moment, then said, "What, something to do with your eyes? Does your power involve your eyes?" Caileen nodded. Mary continued, "So, do you have x-ray vision or laser eyes or something like that?" Caileen shook her head from side to side. She then picked up a book and held it at arm's length, then pointed again to her eyes. Sam's arm shot up as if she were in class. "Oh, oh, oh! I know! You can see really far, like telescopic vision or something, right?" Caileen shook as if she were laughing and nodded. She then pointed to her ears and nose. Mary caught this one now. "You also have really good hearing and smell. A basic enhanced senses package, right?" Caileen nodded. 

"Anything else?" asked Sam. Caileen put her empty suitcase under her bed and stood facing her roommates for a moment. She closed her eyes and looked like she was seriously concentrating. Mary watched for a moment and thought she had waited long enough. "Well," she began, "are you gonna…" She stopped talking as Caileen began to lift up off the floor a few inches. She hovered in mid air a few seconds and then crashed, landing on her butt. "Whoa" said Sam. "That's sooo cool. You're a flyer." Mary walked over and put her arm around Caileen's shoulder. "And with a little training, you'll be flying like a pro. We're all learning how to control our powers here. "

Caileen pointed at Mary and then at Sam with a questioning look on her face. "Oh," Sam said, "You want to know what our powers are? Well, I'm a telekinetic." She stretched her hand towards a book on her desk. The book shook some, and then floated across the room and into her hand. Caileen turned to look at Mary, but she wasn't there anymore. "I'm up here," came Mary's voice from over head. Caileen looked up to see Mary hanging crouched upside down hanging from the ceiling. The look on Caileen's face said how curious she was. Mary dropped from the ceiling, flipping so that she landed on her feet. "My powers are arachnid in nature. You might say they're inherited. My dad's Spiderman."

Caileen thought for a moment when they heard the Professor's call in their heads. "Well," Mary said, "we'd better get going. He doesn't like to be kept waiting."

As Steve walked into the library, he noticed Caileen and the other girls already sitting on a couch. Mr. And Mrs. Summers were standing in front of the fireplace talking to each other. An older bald man was sitting in a wheel chair talking to a short hairy guy with a cigar in his mouth a large, hairy, blue… thing. Mr. Summers turned and saw Steve. "Steve, I want you to meet your other teachers. This midget with a tobacco problem is Logan. He'll be the one who'll get you in physical shape. He'll also be your punishment if you step out of line." Logan grinned. Steve was shocked to see actual fangs in his mouth. "And this guy with the good hair do is Dr. Hank McCoy. He'll be your science and languages teacher." Hank waved and smiled. Again with the fangs, Steve thought. "And the elderly gentlemen sitting here is Professor Charles Xavier. He founded this school and taught the rest of us when we were your age."

The Professor wheeled his chair around to face the group of teens and smiled. "Good evening everyone. I'm glad to see that you've all become more or less acquainted with each other. Since you will all be studying and working together, I think a round of introductions are in order. This beautiful young redhead with green eyes here is Mary Jane Parker, the daughter of Spiderman. She naturally has her father's powers plus a few others. She is a little stronger than her father. She can also spin webs from her wrists and if she were ever to bite anyone, she could inject a variety of poisons through her teeth. Her field name is Arachnia. The brunette with brown eyes is Samantha Loriao. She's a telekinetic. Her field name is TK. The young man with a tan and large assessment of himself is called Lucas Maringe. He's a telepath who can listen to the entire world when he wants. His field name is Psycho. Our newest students are Caileen and Steve Smith. Caileen has enhanced senses and is learning to fly. Steve's skin absorbs energy from light waves and converts it into sound waves. Steve's field name will be Soundbarrier. Caileen, I'm sorry that I haven't thought of a field name for you yet. If you have any suggestions, I'm all ears. 

"I'm sorry that we don't have more time for introductions, but Cerebro just found another mutant very near here. I'm asking that Professors Summers and Logan take the five of you and check it out. The mutant is located in the sewers beneath the city." Logan looked confusedly at Xavier. "Chuck, I thought all of the Morlocks were dead." "I thought so too, Logan," replied Xavier, "but Cerebro hasn't failed us yet. However, the signal wasn't very clear. It's possible that there are more down there. Please be careful."


	3. More Friends

Within an hour, the seven of them had made it to the sewers and were wandering through the tunnels while Logan sniffed around. The five teens wore black body suits, hard leather boots, black leather gloves, and masks that covered everything except their eyes and mouths. Scott looked around the tunnels and said, "This is what we do most of the time guys. It's not all fighting to save the world. Hey, Wolverine, are we getting any closer?"

Logan stopped and gave Scott a dirty look. "I could go a lot faster if I weren't constantly being interrupted. But, we are getting close. And I think there are two of them." Mary was crawling around the tunnel's ceiling looking around. "Well, my spidey-sense isn't going off, so we're not in any immanent danger. Psycho, are you getting anything?" Lucas seemed to be thinking intently on something. "No. It's odd, but I can't sense anyone or anything." Logan sniffed indifferently. "Well, they're down here, both of them. My nose doesn't lie."

Caileen stared down one of the tunnels for a moment, and then began to pound her fist on Logan's shoulder. "What?" he said, "What is it?" She pointed down a tunnel towards a shadow some fifty feet away. Logan fixed his eye on the shadow and nodded. "Good work, kid. I think that's our friend." Before anyone could say anything else, Mary darted along the tunnel walls towards the shadow. She stopped a few feet from the shadow. The others quickly caught up. Scott stepped forward and stretched out his hand offering a handshake.

"Hello. My name is Cyclops. We're here to…"

"No, no, no." the shadow said. "You're here to hurt us." Two eyes within the shadow started to glow blue. The mutant stepped out of the shadows. He stood a full six feet tall. He was covered in rags around his head, shoulders, and down his back. He had on a torn pair of pants. His forearms and hands were covered in some sort of blue scale that reflected the groups' flashlights. The mutant started backing up with a look of fear in his posture.

"No," began Mary, "it's ok. We're not here to hurt you. We're like you."

"No you're not," the mutant said. "You're one of them, from above. You just like to hurt us. I won't let you!" With that the mutant pulled his head back as if taking a deep breath. Lucas got a twinge in the back of his head at the same time that Mary's spidey-sense warned her. They both jumped to the side yelling for everyone to get down. Finishing his breath, the mutant leaned forward and opened his mouth. Bright blue flames erupted from his mouth onto the floor in front of the group. As they watched, the flames climbed around the walls of the sewer tunnel, forming a ring. Then flames shot down and across the ring, making bars of flame to tight for anyone to get through. The mutant turned and ran down the tunnel.

"Well," began Logan, "I don't think he wants us to follow him."

"Too bad." said Scott. He reached his hand up to his visor and selected a low setting to put out the fire. Opening his visor, stored sunlight converted into ruby red energy shot out from his eyes and snuffed out the blue flames. Mary ran down the tunnels after the mutant with Logan right behind her and the others pulling up the rear. As they approached a corner in the tunnels, they heard the water of several sewer pipes combining. Rounding the corner, they saw the fire breathing mutant standing on a metal slab which stood out past the edge of the tunnel with the water running around his feat and falling dozens of feet to a huge cavernous pool below. When he turned and saw the group approaching him, he put one hand on the rags adorned around his shoulders and tore them off, revealing his entire visage.

He stood over six feet tall and was covered with blue scales from head to toe. On his baldhead above his eye sockets were two horns. His ears were also blue and pointed and there were fangs in his mouth, much to the distress of Steve. His fingers and toes ended in claws. Growing out of his back were two enormous blue leathery wings. He turned to the edge of the cavern and jumped into the air, spreading his wings to their full span of fourteen feet. He began to flap his wings and fly across the cavern to the other side where another tunnel opened up.

Mary reached out her arm and flexed muscles which few, if any, other humans had in their forearms. White webbing spewed out from a small slit in her wrists and attached itself to the ceiling of the cavern. Ignoring the warnings and protests of the others, she swung out over the cavern, shooting out another web from her other hand to keep swinging. Pulling with her well-defined arm muscles sped up her swing and allowed her to catch up with the fire-breather. She swung ahead of him letting go of the web and landing on the wall, sticking perfectly to it. The fire-breather watched in shock, the loss in concentration causing him to slam into the wall. Recovering quickly, he sank his claws into the wall and look up at Mary above him.

"How do you do that?"

"I told you," replied Mary, "we're mutants, like you. We just look different, that's all. We're still similar." A look of hope passed over the blue-scaled mutant's face. "And the others, are they mutants too?"

"Yes," said Mary, "they're all mutants, just like us. You can trust us." She reached up and pulled her mask off and let it hang behind her like a hood. "We're here to take you someplace safe where you can learn to control your powers, where no one will judge you. My name's Mary. Do you have a name?"

"Daemon. The few others who were left to raise us when we were little called me Daemon."

"Daemon?" asked Mary. "Who else is here with you?"

Daemon looked at the others standing on the other side of the cavern, as if judging whether he could trust them all. Then he looked at Mary with a set face. "If you try to hurt us, I swear to you I will burn all of you to ash, even your bones."

Mary was a little taken back. "Understandable, and don't worry, you won't have to do that."

"Follow me." Daemon pushed off the wall and spread his wings, flying to another tunnel. Landing, he grabbed several pieces of plank wood and laid them across the chasm, bridging the space between the where he stood and where the group stood. Mary swung across to meet the others walking across the makeshift bridge. They followed Daemon as he walked down various tunnels further and further underground. Finally, the entire group entered another cavernous area, this one dry and well furnished with all the accoutrements of home. Sitting on a chair reading a book was a young woman with long black hair and black skin. She turned towards the entering group. Steve was a little shocked to see that her eyes were fire red.

"Daemon," she said, "who are these people? What are they doing here?" She looked as if she were afraid for her life. Steve walked up before anyone could stop him and stretched out his hand. "It's ok. My name is Steve. We're here to…" His words were cut short when bright red fire erupted from the young girl's hand and encircled him.

Daemon ran forward and put his hand on the girl's. "Danielle, stop it! They're here to help us. They're mutants, just like us." Danielle looked from Steve to her brother and back again, and then lowered her hand. The flames died out completely. "I'm sorry," she began, "I thought you were here to hurt us. So many have tried before."

"It's alright, no harm done. It makes sense for you to be wary." Still, Steve couldn't help brushing his hand across his suit looking for burn marks.

"Don't bother kid," said Logan. "The suit's fire resistant." Steve nodded, but still looked a little shaken up.

Scott walked over to Danielle and shook her hand. "Hello, Danielle. My name is Scott Summers. Some call me Cyclops. We live in a school for mutants up on the surface. We would like for you and your brother to come live with us and learn to control your powers. These others here with us are students from the school." A round of introductions commenced, ending with Steve shaking Danielle's hand a little longer than the others.

"Well," said Daemon to his sister, "what do you think? Should we go with them?" Danielle looked around her home, torn with emotion. "I don't know. This has been home as long as I can remember. Everything we ever had of our parents and family is down here. Could we take them with us?" Scott nodded. "Sure. You'll have a little space at the mansion for personal effects, if you want. But there really isn't that much space."

Danielle looked around the room, and then walked over to a shelf that held a few ratty books and some clothing. Another item on the shelf was a small, brass box. With the care one usually associates with items of great importance, Danielle picked up the box and walked back to the group. "This belonged to my mother." She opened the box, showing a worn and dog-eared picture of a young mutant couple holding each other while looking into each other's eyes. They both had dark skin. The man had black eyes and short black hair. His ears and hands were abnormally large. The woman had black hair, but red eyes. There were no other visible mutations. "These are my parents when they were still dating." Pulling out a small locket from the box, she draped it over her neck. "This was my dad's wedding present to my mom. This is really all I wanted to bring with me."

Turning off the lights in the room, the siblings followed the group of mutants out of the room and back to the surface. Within a few minutes, they were nearer to the surface. The young students and Logan removed their masks and put on trench coats that they had left near the sewer entrance. Steve put on a ski mask to cover his skin. Even with the trench coats that they were given, Daemon and Danielle would stand out a little, Daemon more than his sister. Psycho fixed this by putting a mental cloak over every human's mind in the area, making them not see Daemon's mutation, but instead see a young black man. Within an hour, the group had returned to the mansion and began to settle in a little more.


	4. Save a Murderer

As the weeks passed, the group began to become closer and closer in their friendships. Danielle was put in the same room with Mary, Sam, and Caileen. She was also given the code name of Firestar. Daemon was put with Lucas and Steve and given the code name of Demon. The seven of them had class together, ate together, and spent much of their free time together. After a few weeks of training, Steve had gained enough control over his powers to show his face in public, literally. They became more and more of a team. It was found out that Daemon's mutant powers were metamorphic in nature. He had changed into the demon form when he was younger. His scales were fairly dense, providing a natural armor that could at least resist bullets. He possessed the ability to control the fire that he breathed, a form of pyrokenisis. Another odd ability was the fact that Daemon's mind was as armored as his body. Not even Professor Xavier could enter Daemon's mind. It was too well blocked. Danielle could also control the fire that she created from her hands. Her mind was also well blocked. This made it very difficult to find them when they wandered around the school.

The only other team of young mutants in the school was Generation X, a slightly more advanced class that even went on missions from time to time. Mary noticed that they were given harder simulations in the Danger Room, a holographic training area where any situation could be simulated with complete believability. Mary didn't understand how the thing worked. All she knew was that it was built from alien technology. She guessed that the technology had been a gift or something from Professor Xavier's love, Queen Lilandra, the queen of the Shi'ar Empire.

She constantly asked Professor Summers if they could train like the other team, but he constantly answered that they weren't ready for that yet. He reminded her that Generation X had been at the school for several years now and were quite advanced in their training. Mary couldn't help but feel that her and her team were being coddled. She thought that it might have something to do with the fact that her team had been named the New Mutants. There had been a previous team of New Mutants years ago. They had had a lack of training before going into dangerous situations. One of those situations resulted in the death of a member of the team, Douglas Ramsey. Mary wondered if maybe the professors were worried that they might fall under the same fate unless they were trained to the max before they ever saw combat.

Six weeks after the events in the Morlock tunnels, Mary was sitting under a tree in the lawn on a Saturday reading a copy of Plato's Republic for her philosophy class. Scott walked up and sat down next to her.

"You know, I never could get all that philosophy stuff. Jean even tried one time to telepathically put it into my head, but I guess that I'm just too stubborn."

"I wouldn't feel too bad about it" Mary said. "I barely get the basics of it."

Scott nodded and then continued. "Mary, you've lately been complaining that we don't treat your team like we treat Generation X. You've wanted to go on missions and such. How does the rest of your team feel about it?"

This line of questioning surprised Mary. She thought for a moment before answering. "We've talked about several times. As far as I can tell, they want to go just as bad as I do."

Scott nodded again. "Well then, you should gather your team and have them suit up and meet us in the Briefing Room downstairs. We've got a mission that we feel you would do well in." Finishing his sentence, Scott stood up and walked back to the mansion. Mary jumped to her feet so fast she accidentally smacked her head into a tree branch. Rubbing the spot where her head had hit, she ran as fast as she could back to the mansion to tell her friends the good news.

A few minutes later, the New Mutants were sitting in the Briefing Room three floors beneath the school. They all wore the black uniforms with matching masks. Danielle had been given a uniform to match everyone else's. Daemon's had no mask or gloves or boots, as he did not need to hide his identity and his claws had torn through the material. It also had two slots in the back for his wings.

As they waited anxiously to see their first mission, Scott walked into the room followed by Professor Xavier, Jean, Logan, and Hank. Scott stood up in front of the group.

"Welcome to your first mission briefing. Don't get your hopes up that this will be some action packed thrill ride. This is a very low key mission with little or no danger at all." The group's muttering was quickly quieted by a stern look from both Scott and Logan. Scott continued. "This is a rescue mission. Six few weeks ago the Sentinels captured a mutant. The reason it took so long for us to find him is that the organization that has him has kept him so drugged up that he has very little conscious brain activity right now. These people are breaking with the Supreme Court decision that all captured mutants get a fair trial before being sentenced or imprisoned. So, if we go in and take the mutant, we doubt very much that they will report us since that would be admittance of their crime. Also, today being a Saturday, we don't expect there to be many people, so this should be uncomplicated.

"The New Mutants are to provide cover, if needed, while Wolverine, Beast, Jean and I enter the facility and get the mutant out of there. Like I said this will be low key. Hopefully we will be able to get in and out within a few minutes and no trouble. Any questions?"

Steve raised his hand. "So, what are we going to be needed for again?"

Scott gave him a contemptuous look. "You're coming along for the experience and to provide any extra muscle that we may need. If you don't feel that you can handle this, you're more than welcome to stay behind." Steve sunk lower into his chair muttering that it was ok. Scott looked around and said, "Good. Then everyone head for the Blackbird."

The Blackbird was the X-Men's private jet. It was a modified SR-71 jet that could accommodate various people when there was a need for a crowd, like today. While the New Mutants had all been in various simulations to learn how to fly it, none had ever actually ridden in the Blackbird. After seeing that everyone was settled and strapped in, Scott launched the Blackbird and set a course for Austin Texas. Using Shi'ar cloaking technology, the Blackbird was undetectable. Within an hour, the ultra fast jet landed at the edge of a clearing.

After everyone disembarked, Scott had the New Mutants set up a perimeter on a hill overlooking a large office complex. With everyone lying on the hill on their bellies, Scott looked at the building and turned to Lucas. "Psycho, can you sense anyone here?"

"Yes," he answered. "There are a few humans all centered in the lounge on the north side of the building. The mutant is there on the south side. It doesn't seem like anyone knows we're here."

Looking at Jean, Scott saw her nod her head. "Good" Scott said. Scott and the others got up and ran for the south side of the building while the New Mutants stayed where they were.

"So, we just stay here, huh?" Lucas asked Mary when the X-Men had gone out of sight.

"Yep."

They watched as the X-Men entered the building and went out of sight. Caileen cocked her head to one side as if she heard something. Looking up to the sky she was suddenly filled with horror. A computerized voice filled the air as it said, "HALT, MUTANTS!"

Inside, the X-Men quickly found the lab where the mutant was being kept. He was restrained on a table with various needles in his arms and a neural inhibitor placed on his shaved head. Jean sighed when she saw it. "This is why we couldn't find him. But, I wonder why we could find him now?"

Hank walked over to the computer and began to deactivate the inhibitor while Jean and Logan pulled the needles out of the mutants' arms. As Hank finished with the computer, the inhibitor fell off. Scott touched his visor and activated a new feature. He took a scan of the mutant and his powers. "That's odd. His mutation isn't all that much, just a level one energy wielder, telekinetic and telepath. He probably couldn't even hear thoughts outside this room."

"Well, it doesn't matter," said Logan as he used his adamantium claws to cut the mutant's restraints off. "I don't like these places, let's get out of here."

As they walked outside, they were horrified by what they saw. The New Mutants were running towards the building with three twenty-foot sentinels standing behind them, blocking the way to the cloaked Blackbird.

Scott called out orders. "New Mutants, make a path to the jet! Now!" Hank grabbed the mutant who had begun to revive and threw him over his shoulder and began to carry him towards the jet. Daemon turned and spread his wings lifting off the ground. As he flew towards a sentinel, he breathed fire right at the chest of the center sentinel. The fire scorched the metal behemoth and caused a few sparks to burst. The sentinel did not stop however. It opened its hand and blasted at Daemon using its palm mounted laser cannon. Daemon avoided the blast but temporarily lost control and tumbled to the ground. Scott opened up his visor and fired a full blast at the already damaged sentinel, but it still did not stop.

As the mutants tried to get around the sentinels to the jet, Hank noticed his passenger waking up.

"No," the mutant groggily said. "Leave me here. It's not safe. I'm not safe."

"What are you talking about?" asked Hank.

The mutant struggled and jumped off Hank's shoulder and fell to the ground. Scott turned to see what the commotion was when his visor picked up an energy build up. He didn't understand why the kid was trying to build up an energy wave; it wouldn't do much good with how little power he had. Then he noticed what his visor was telling him. The mutant wasn't registering as a level one anymore. He was registering as off the charts. He saw raw energy crackling around the mutant's body. He watched in horrid fascination as the mutant's eyes began to glow bright white. As he watched, the mutant's entire body started to glow white-hot. He could almost feel the waves of pure energy coming from the mutant. He knew what was coming. He knew that they only had one chance. They had recently obtained body-sliding technology from Scott's son, Cable. He had hoped the sentinels would never know that they had it, but he had no choice. He touched a control on his communicator and suddenly, everyone was inside the Blackbird. He quickly activated the jet's alien shields.

Logan looked confusedly at Scott. "What's going on? We left that boy behind!"

"We're not leaving him, but I don't think this will be a safe place in a few seconds."

"What are you…?" Logan's sentence was cut off when a bright flash of light filled the jet's windows and a shock wave rocked the area around them. Scott noticed that the shields barely held. After a few seconds, the light faded and everyone left the jet.

Climbing the hill towards the facility, they only found a large crater where the facility was. Everything was gone, the buildings, the people, and even the sentinels. Hovering over the crater was an energy sphere that was reshaping itself into human form. When all the light faded, the group saw that the energy became the mutant they had wanted to save. He floated above the center of the crater for a few minutes and then fell to the ground, unconscious. Not waiting for more sentinels to show up, Jean telekinetically lifted the mutant out of the crater and back into the jet. Everyone strapped in in silence. The silence remained as the group flew home.


	5. Memories

Once they had landed in the underground hangar, the New Mutants switched into their normal clothes while Hank and Jean placed the still unconscious mutant in the infirmary and set the machinery to monitor his vital signs.

After leaving the changing rooms, Steve and Caileen looked at each other with a look of awe. They slowly began to sign to one another in their own code that they had developed over the years for private talks.

_It's impossible,_ said Caileen's hands in rapid succession.

_There's no other possibility,_ went Steve's response. _There's no one else he could be._

_But, it can't be. There's no way he would have done what they say he did._ Caileen's face showed her unwillingness to believe the accusations.

Look, Caileen, you saw the pictures. You've read the reports. You know that it was his house and family that got blown up. And even if there had ever been any doubt that it had been him, what we just saw out there proved that the explosion that destroyed everything before was his. We have to face the facts, whether or not he's our friend. He killed his family and endangered that little girl.

_You actually believe that garbage that they publish on TV?_ Caileen couldn't believe her own brother was buying into what the mutant haters had been saying.

_Look, I'm not saying that it was intentional. I'm not saying he did it on purpose. But we have to realize that he did it nonetheless. It's a good thing he's here now. The Professor can help him get his powers under control. Maybe then we can get our friend Johnathan back._ Apparently finished with the conversation, Steve walked off towards the elevator and went back up to the school for some dinner.

Caileen instead walked towards the infirmary. She stood in the door watching her childhood friend lie there on the medical slab. She shook her head and turned towards the elevator. After an uncomfortable silence during dinner, she returned to her room and turned on her computer. 

Accessing the Internet, she pulled up the articles that had been run on Johnathan Powell. She found horrible descriptions by witnesses of the screams the Powell family made as their horrible son disintegrated them. She found obvious lies in some reports that Johnathan had always been a troublemaker, involved in gangs, drugs, and such. That couldn't be farther from the truth. The truth was that, as a young child, Johnathan had been about as interesting as a plate of cold spaghetti. That was one of the reasons why she had never taken his boyish advances seriously. Caileen remembered how Johnathan had constantly hung around her trying to convince her that she would marry him one day. She had kind of been happy when her family moved away. They had still written for a long time afterwards, but he had continued to be the awkward weirdo. Then, the letters had stopped. It had been around the same time as the news articles said that Johnathan had destroyed his family.

The other girls came in from dinner and went to bed without saying anything. The only thing that seemed to be on everyone's mind was that they had saved a murderer this afternoon. Caileen got ready for bed herself and lay down. She waited till she heard the rhythmic breathing that told her the others had gone to sleep, and then she got up and quietly walked out of the room and towards the hidden elevator. Going down into the lower levels of the school, she got off at the floor with the infirmary. Caileen walked straight into the infirmary and sat down next to Johnathan's bed. She noticed that he had been dressed in some new pants while his chest had been left bare for the sensors to be placed there.

_I don't think you did it._ She thought as she looked at him. _I don't believe it. You're not capable of murder._

_You shouldn't assume what I'm capable of._ She hadn't heard the reply so much as felt it in her mind. She was taken aback as she realized who had spoken to her. Looking down at Johnathan, she saw that he was still unconscious.

She began to form words in her mind, wondering if it would work. _Johnathan, is that you? Can you hear me?_

_Yes, it's me. I can hear you._

_If you're in there,_ she began, _why don't you wake up?_

_I don't want to wake up. I don't want to live anymore. You should have left me there at that lab. It's not safe to be around me. People get hurt._

She knew what he was talking about. _Johnathan, you can't be serious. You're no murderer._

_Try telling that to my parents and Elizabeth._

Caileen remembered Johnathan's little sister. The two of them had never gotten along perfectly well, but they hadn't really hated each other. She reached out a hand to stroke his head, hoping he would feel it. When her fingers touched his head, she felt a wave of dizziness wash over her. She closed her eyes and shook her head to get rid of the feeling, but when she opened them again, she didn't see the infirmary anymore. She saw a modestly furnished room in a nice little house. Looking out the window, she could see a sunny day in what she assumed was summer. In the distance was a small mountain. She had never seen this house before. She wondered who's it was and how she got here.

The front door to the house opened and a young teen-age boy walked in. "Mom!" he shouted. "The lawn mower's out of gas again. I can't keep cutting the grass. Can I play some video games instead?"

"Sure, sweetheart," came the reply. "We'll go get some more gas in a little while." Caileen thought she recognized the second voice. It sounded like it probably belonged to the boy's mother. Caileen heard footsteps running down the hall. Turning, she saw an even younger teen-age girl running towards the video game console. Caileen's breath came up short in her chest as she recognized the little girl. It was Elizabeth. Now she recognized the boy and the mother's voice. This was Johnathan's family. But, they were all too young for it to have been recent. She noticed that no one noticed her.

Elizabeth began to fight over the video game with her brother. "I wanted to play! You play all the time. Mom! Tell him to let me play!" "Johnathan, play nice with your sister," came Mrs. Powell's voice from the bedroom. Johnathan grudgingly played a two player game with his sister.

"You know I had lied about the lawn mower." The voice came suddenly from Caileen's side. She jumped a little with fear and turned to see a grown version of Johnathan standing next to her. This one looked like Johnathan before he had been captured with his ratty hair and unkempt beard. "It was low on gas, but not out. I was just lazy and didn't want to keep cutting." Seeing that Caileen was remaining quiet, he said, "You can talk here. You're inside my head. No mutant powers to worry about." Seeing Caileen's look of disbelief he continued. "Think about it. You're in my head, and I'm in yours. I know why you don't talk, but it's safe here."

Caileen looked at Johnathan for a moment before speaking. "What day is this in your memory?"

"It's the day I found out I was a mutant."

They watched for a moment as the two young siblings played on the video game. After a few minutes, the door opened and a man Caileen recognized as Mr. Powell entered the house. "Johnathan, why isn't the yard cut?"

Before Johnathan could answer, his mom came down the hall and said, "He said the lawn mower was out of gas. Don't worry, we'll go get some in a while and he can finish it up."

Mr. Powell looked at his son for a moment. "It's not empty. It's low, but the yard could be finished with the gas that's in there."

Mrs. Powell looked at her son with disgust. "You lied to me, again? How could you? Walking over, she unplugged the video game and took the adapter. "You're grounded. No TV, video games, friends, anything. And I don't know how long this will last. You've got to learn to stop lying, Johnathan. I know that cutting the grass is no fun at all, but it's a job that needs doing. You've got to learn responsibility."

Johnathan stood up in anger and began to shout. "Why should I have to cut the grass? It's not my yard! I don't care if it gets three foot high! Why don't the two of you do it if you care so much about it?"

Mr. Powell walked over to Johnathan and slapped him across the face. "You watch how you talk to your mother! You will go out there and finish the yard, and then you'll go to your room till dinner. I've half a mind to throw that stupid video game away and be done with it. It causes nothing but problems. Your grades have dropped and your attitude is horrible. You'd best decide what's important to you right now, or you'll never accomplish anything in life!"

Johnathan replied with force. "You're always making me do the work around here! You don't care if I have other dreams of my own! It's always about what you want! You want this for me! You want that for me! **I hate you!**" Suddenly, he grabbed his stomach and fell over in pain. His parents knelt at his side asking him if he was alright. Elizabeth closed in as well. When Johnathan's eyes opened again, they were bright with energy. Before Caileen could even realize what was happening, she saw Johnathan explode into a bright ball of energy that engulfed everything around her. Johnathan's family didn't even get a chance to scream. Caileen noticed that the energy didn't hurt her. She realized that she was only watching the memory of what had happened before. When the energy faded, she saw a ball of condensing energy hovering in mid air in front of her. Just like at the mutant registration agency, the energy formed into human shape and Johnathan fainted to the ground. After a few seconds, he got up and ran from the house into the mountains.

Older Johnathan stepped up beside her. "Still think I'm innocent. I hated my family so much that I killed them."

Caileen looked him in the eye. "It was an accident. You didn't mean to. I know you, Johnathan. You didn't mean those words you said."

"But they were still the last words I said to them. They were the last things that they ever heard."

Another wave of dizziness swept over Caileen and she noticed that she was standing on a different street with houses all around her. There were no mountains anywhere. Johnathan was still standing next to her in the street. Looking down one side of the street, she saw a shoddily dressed vagabond walking down the side walk. She recognized him instantly as Johnathan, the current one. Looking down the other side of the street, she saw a beautiful little girl playing with a ball in her front yard. Her mom called her into the house, causing her to drop her ball which rolled into the street. The little girl chased it into the street. Johnathan looked and saw the girl entering the street. Caileen heard the screech of tires as a hotrod came roaring down the way, weaving back and forth on the street as if the driver was drunk. Caileen looked in horror as she realized that the little girl was about the get hit and killed.

She turned to the side to see Johnathan outstretching his hand toward the oncoming car. A bright light formed around Johnathan's hand and a beam of energy shot out towards the car. Johnathan's face was contorted as if he were straining to control the blast. The beam struck the car in the engine, causing it to stop dead in its tracks. The drivers were thrown through the windshield as they weren't wearing their seat belts. The shockwave caused by the energy hitting the car threw the little girl backwards and into a light pole, knocking her out.

Johnathan in horror ran over to the little girl, but her mom got there first and began to beg that Johnathan leave them alive. Caileen heard the sound of rockets over head and saw a sentinel, in all its horrible glory, landing on the street. It fired some sort of energy wave at Johnathan. Johnathan convulsed with the energy as it formed into a hard restraint around his arms and legs, immobilizing him.

The Johnathan standing next to Caileen looked on with disgust. "Once again, I hurt someone innocent. That little girl didn't deserve to be hurt, but I hurt her none the less."

"It was an accident," said Caileen. "You tried to save her. You didn't mean to hurt her. You just can't control your power yet."

"Yeah, I'm sure that that's a real comfort for the little girl and her mother."

As a third wave of dizziness swept over Caileen, she kept her eyes open and saw the neighborhood disappear and be replaced with the school infirmary. She looked at Johnathan's unconscious body on the slab and sighed. Looking up at the clock, she realized she had spent the entire night there. She hurried up to get some breakfast, thinking on what she had seen.


	6. Training

The entire group of New Mutants was sitting at the table eating a variety of cereal, donuts, and other breakfast foods. Scott was explaining something when Caileen entered.

"…and so with this latest sighting of the sentinels, Professor Xavier has agreed that some students should begin firearm training immediately. This is for those of you whose powers are not aggressive in nature, like Lucas and Caileen, for the time being. The rest of you will learn about firearms a little later. Also, all of you will now have two sessions with Logan per day." The entire group began to moan and groan about the idea of an extra session with Logan. "Get over it people. If someone has begun to make more sentinels, then we all need to be at our best just to survive them."

Sam raised her hand and began to speak. "I think we've got something a little closer to home and a little more dangerous than giant robots."

Lucas nodded his head in agreement. "I think that that guy downstairs is ten times more dangerous than any robot."

Scott shook his head. "Even if he is, he's a mutant who needs our help. Both Professor Xavier and I feel that with some training, he could control his power and make a valuable member of your team."

The New Mutants were in a stunned silence. Mary looked up and down the table and finally stood up to Scott. "You want **him** on our team? He killed his family; he attacked a defenseless little girl! He's not safe!"

Caileen stood up and her hands began to move so quickly that almost no one could read her signs. Steve looked at everyone's confusion and interpreted for them. "She's saying that he's innocent, that he could never hurt anyone on purpose. It was all an accident. Johnathan isn't a murderer."

Danielle looked from brother to sister realizing something. "How do you know his name?"

Steve sighed and turned to the others, saying, "We know him from our childhoods. We were all friends, his sister, himself, and us. We recognized him when we got him into the infirmary. We didn't want to say anything because we worried that you would think we were weird too."

Scott looked at Caileen and asked, "You know him. Do you trust him enough to keep him here?"

Caileen thought for a moment, and then began to sign toward Steve, who translated. "She says that while he wouldn't do anything intentionally, he can't control his powers yet."

"How do you know that?" Scott asked. "How do you know what he's capable of?"

Once again Caileen began to sign to her brother. "She says that last night she talked to Johnathan."

"How?"

"She says she talked to him by telepathy." Steve himself looked rather incredulous at this latest statement. "She says that last night, she went to see him in the infirmary. She doesn't understand how it happened, but when she touched his forehead, she saw his memories of his family's death and those of the little girl. His family was an accident of when his mutation first showed itself. He was trying to save the little girl and it backfired."

"Well," began Scott, "We'll have to wait until he wakes up and lets the Professor in his head before we can confirm anything. Until then, everyone will begin training for a move against the sentinels."

From then on, Lucas and Caileen's classes included intense training in some strange type of handgun. It didn't fire bullets like most guns. This type of gun fired bolts of energy. Rumor had it that the design for the guns had come from Scott's son. Somehow, Lucas couldn't imagine that Scott had a son who would be old enough to design guns like this. He just didn't get it.


	7. Field Trip

After two weeks of the new training regime, Scott and Logan met everyone at breakfast and told them to hurry up and meet them in the planning room. Five minutes later, the entire New Mutants were sitting around the planning room in their nightclothes.

Scott turned on the holoprojector, showing them a hologram of some sort of factory. "This is the remains of an old sentinel factory. We feel that it would do all of you some good to see an old sentinel factory. It might give you all some idea of what you will be dealing with in the future. So, get suited up and meet us at the Blackbird in fifteen minutes."

Everyone seemed excited about the idea of seeing the old sentinel factory. Steve was convinced that he would be allowed to bring home some souvenir, like a piece of a sentinel's eye or something. After everyone had strapped into their seats, Scott finished the preflight preparations and ignited the Blackbird's engines. Goosing the throttle forward, he put the modified jet into a forward motion. Soon, the jet reached the end of the underground hangar, where sat a large fortified steel door. The door opened with unusual quickness as the sensors detected the quick moving jet. After the Blackbird exited the hangar from its cliff exit, the steel doors closed as quickly as they opened, after which a hologram appeared, masking the door as a normal cliff.

After a few minutes of flight time, Scott had landed the Blackbird in an open field near an old decrepit building that had vines and moss growing all over it. Everyone walked down the ramp and onto the field. All were dressed in their various uniforms, the New Mutants wearing their black body suits with matching boots, gloves, and masks. Scott was wearing his old field uniform of a blue body suit with yellow utility straps mounted around his chest. Logan was wearing his yellow spandex uniform and yellow mask.

After a short walk, the group came up to the edge of the compound and passed through the old security fence. "Now," said Logan, "the most recently seen sentinels are twenty feet tall and boast laser cannons in the palms of their hands. The sensory equipment that helps the sentinel detect mutants is usually mounted in their chest cavity. Fortunately, their size helps most mutants know when the sentinels are approaching. Can anyone tell me how big the original sentinels were?"

After a second of though, Sam raised her hand and said, "The first sentinels were only ten feet tall."

"Very good TK," said Logan. "That made them a little harder to spot and take out, but by the same token, they were not as strong as the later models, so there was a trade off."

Scott was repeatedly tapping the communicator mounted on his chest, but all that was coming out of the communicator was static. Logan looked at Scott with a wondering look. "Cyclops, what is it?" Scott looked at Logan and said, "We were supposed to report in when we got to the factory, but all I'm getting is static. Are anyone else's communicators working?" Everyone tried their own communicators, which for everyone were mounted on their belts. After a few tries, everyone shook their heads no. Scott turned to Lucas. "Psycho, contact the Professor and let him know that we're all right." Lucas nodded and closed his eyes in concentration. After a few moments though, he opened them and a look of distress crossed over his face. "I'm not getting through. I can't even listen to anyone else's mind here. I'm totally blocked off everywhere I turn."

Scott and Logan looked at each other and nodded. "Ok," said Logan, "everyone head for the jet and let's get out of here." As they turned, they saw ten six foot tall robots with their palms facing the mutants. A human voice sounded from behind them, "You're not going anywhere, muties. Now, put your hands behind your heads and lay face down on the ground."

Scott raised his hands to his head, but instead of placing them behind his head, he touched the small button on the side of his visor, opening it and unleashing a bolt of ruby red energy at the nearest sentinel. It fell back with a large hole in its chest. Logan leaped backward, releasing the claws from within his forearms. They sprung forward from in between his knuckles, tinged with the blood of cutting through Logan's muscles. He landed in front of the human who had been addressing them and planted his left foot squarely in the human's chest, evacuating the human's lungs of air and knocking him onto his back.

The New Mutants stood around for a moment realizing that this was no training mission, but the real thing. Acting with surprising reflexes, Lucas drew his handgun and landed a perfect shot in another sentinel in front of the group. Steve stepped forward and stretched his hands in front of himself. As he focused, his body absorbed energy from the light around him and converted it into sound waves that were projected from his hands. The waves hit two sentinels, causing their chest cavities to crack. Danielle stepped up beside Steve and stretched her own hands out, emitting fire from them. The fire entered the sentinels' chests and fried them from the inside.

Mary had leaped backwards, even farther than Logan, into the group of sentinels behind the New Mutants. She kicked backwards, throwing one sentinel into two others with such force that various limbs were torn off of each one. Daemon stretched out his wings and lifted into the air, breathing fire on various sentinels from above. However, as he lifted into the air, he got a good look above the closest sentinels at the complex behind them. He saw sentinel after sentinel leaving the complex, almost as if there were no end to them. It occurred to him why these sentinels were so small; they were easier to produce en masse. He thought that they might have produced hundreds of these smaller sentinels and there would be nothing that could be done about it.

The fighting continued with the sentinel parts piling up. The human who Logan had kicked crawled towards the edge of the battle and waited it out. Caileen had drawn her gun, but was getting off very few shots. She seemed almost as if she were not entirely focused on the fight for her life happening all around her.


	8. Visions

As he lay on the medical slab, Johnathan was aware that Jean was sitting next to his slab, monitoring his progress or something. He drifted back to sleep. He had been having strange dreams lately, dreams where some figure was trying to talk to him, trying to tell him something urgent. The figure acted as if this piece of information was life altering. As Johnathan fell back into his uncomfortable sleep, he again dreamed of the figure, but this time the figure wasn't talking, just standing there looking at Johnathan. Johnathan walked forward in his dream and stood in front of the man, whose face was covered by a white hood.

"All right," he said. "Who are you? Why do I keep dreaming about you? Are you some sort of sub-conscious image? Are you someone I knew before? Answer me!"

The figure stepped closer, causing Johnathan to step back some. "No, I'm not someone you've ever met before now. I'm also not part of your sub-conscious. I'm real. I'm talking to you through forth-dimensional telepathy. I'm talking to you from two thousand years in the future. I'm your descendant. And I'm here to help you."

Johnathan was a little taken back by what had just been said. "No way! I don't buy it! Even Professor Xavier can't talk through time. Why should I believe you?"

"Because you know its true," the hooded figure said calmly.

"Then what are you here to help me with?"

The air around the dream state changed just like it had for Caileen when she had visited Johnathan's memories. Johnathan suddenly found himself in a war scene, some distant war scene from the future. "This," said the hooded man, "is my time. A world filled with war and death where only the strongest survive and the rest are fodder. My entire family is dead. All my friends who have fought with me through out the years are dead. I'm the only one left fighting against a monstrosity who only wants to kill the world for its weakness."

"I'm sorry," Johnathan said. "But I don't understand how this matters for me. How are you here to help me when you've got so many problems there?"

The hooded figure nodded and turned towards Johnathan. "I'm here to help us both. I'm hoping that by helping you change events in your present, this nightmare might be avoided."

"Events like what?" This really had Johnathan worried. He could feel the truthfulness of the hooded man's words. He somehow knew that they were true.

The air changed again as the hooded man turned away. Now the scene showed a field with a decrepit old building. What was the most horrifying was that in the field were all of the New Mutants along with Scott and Logan. "This," began the hooded man, "is happening right now, in your time. According to the histories that have been passed down in the family, this battle was where most of these people died. They were overwhelmed and slaughtered. The only one who survived was Caileen, and the sentinels captured her and tortured her for various years before you and other X-Men were able to rescue her. The success of the new sentinels caused other anti-mutant groups to take courage and begin to construct their own sentinels and begin to hunt down mutants everywhere. This mutant war went on for several hundred years. While humans and mutants fought each other over stupid differences, the real threat to the world simply waited and built up a strong enough force that when the real battle started and the humans and mutants finally wised up and joined forces, it was too late. Eventually in this war, Caileen herself died leaving you alone with the children you had. In the end, they all died."

"Wait a minute," Johnathan said. "You said that war didn't start for several hundred years, how could Caileen and I be alive during that time?"

The hooded figure shook his head. "I meant that she died during the mutant war with the humans."

"Oh," said Johnathan. "Wait! We had children? We were married?"

The hooded figure nodded again.

"Then, how are you here to help me?"

The figure looked at Johnathan while Johnathan looked at the battle being shown to him. While everyone was taking down many, many sentinels, they did look to be tiring, where the sentinels seemed to keep coming. The figure placed his hand on Johnathan's shoulder to get his attention. "Mutant dna is just as unimaginative as human dna. It repeats every so often just the same. I have your exact genetic structure." The figure threw his hood back showing that he indeed had the exact same face as Johnathan. "And with your structure," he continued, "I also have your powers. I've learned how to control them better since I'm a little older than you." The figure didn't seem that much older, but Johnathan believed him anyway, though something did seem off. "I will help you control your powers during this current battle, if you want. It might be the deciding factor that could prevent my nightmare from happening. It will also save your friends."

Johnathan thought for a moment before answering. "All right, lets do it. But, won't this change history so that you would never have contacted me in the first place, if it works?"

The figure smiled and shook his head. "You'll learn, as you progress, that time really has no effect on either one of us." With that, the dream faded and Johnathan opened his eyes.

Charles was teaching telepathy defenses to the class of Generation X with Emma Frost, their chief mistress, when the institute shook with a loud explosion. Charles quickly did a mental scan of the area and found that the school was not under attack, but that something had happened in the infirmary. Maneuvering his hover chair out the door, he mentioned to Emma by telepathy to take care of her students. Charles met Hank in the hall and they both got into the elevator together. When they got to the infirmary, they found a cloud of dust settling to the floor, where Jean was picking herself up.

"Jean," Hank began. "What happened?"

"I don't know," she answered. "Johnathan opened his eyes and the next thing I knew there was a loud explosion. I don't even know where he is right now." She pointed out the empty slab where Johnathan had lain for several weeks without moving.

Charles pointed at the wall behind Jean and said, "I think our young friend has left the school." Jean looked behind herself and saw a large, smoking hole in the wall that led all the way to the surface.

"Oh my stars and garters," was all Hank could say.


	9. Backup

As Steve and Danielle fought side by side, he began to imagine that, if they survived this, he would have to ask her on a date. She really was beautiful. As the two continued to fight, they separated a bit to give each other more room for their powers. Steve was cutting loose as much as possible. Several of the sentinels had taken flight, causing them to be much harder to hit regularly. Daemon was handling most of the airborne sentinels, but they were getting to be quite numerous.

Steve looked over and noticed that Danielle was producing more fire than usual. He thought that she must have been really cutting loose in this fight. However, after a few seconds, he saw in her eyes that she had lost control of the flames. He rushed over to help her but couldn't get close because of the heat. He yelled up to Daemon for help. When he saw what was happening to his sister, he dove down to help, using his own control over fire to calm the flames down some. However, after he landed, a sentinel grabbed Daemon from behind, making him loose his concentration.

Steve watched in horror as the flames grew and grew and grew. The flames were destroying several dozen sentinels as they reached higher into the sky. Danielle began to scream as her hair and skin caught on fire. Steve rushed towards her, ignoring the searing heat, but was caught in the leg by a sentinel's laser blast, taking him down. As Steve and Daemon watched in helpless despair, Danielle was completely consumed by the flames, which began to devour sentinels and everything around them. After a few terrible moments, the flames died out completely, leaving nothing but a pile of ashes.

Daemon in rage grabbed the arms of the sentinel holding him and ripped them from their sockets. Turning on the sentinel, he blew fire from his mouth until the sentinel was a bubbling pool of metal. He and Steve both began to channel their rage through their powers, taking out more and more sentinels, but the robots kept coming. Mary was throwing robots around with her hands while Sam was throwing them around with her telekinesis. Lucas was shooting down as many as he could with his blaster while Scott did the same with his eyes. Logan was moving in between the robots with his claws flashing in the sun.

Caileen looked around herself and saw that every sentinel taken down was replaced by three more. Looking at her gun that had done her no good so far, she threw it down to the ground. Focusing as hard as she could, she lifted off the ground and flew skyward, drawing many of the sentinels after her. When she had made a fairly high altitude, she looked back to see at least forty sentinels flying after her. She had already made the decision in her mind. She knew she had to do it; there was no other way to save everyone, but it stilled frightened her. How would everyone, even her brother, look at her afterwards? Deciding to cross that bridge when she came to it, she pulled her head back, taking in as deep a breath as she could. Leaning forward, she opened her mouth and spoke for the first time in almost five years.

Scott had seen Caileen fly off and had thought she was running for the Blackbird to try its radio. He called after her to tell her she would have to fly faster to beat the sentinels, but it didn't seem that she heard him. He was surprised when he saw her turn around and take a deep breath. _What's she going to do, scream?_ he thought to himself.

He got his answer when the air around Caileen's mouth began to ripple. Scott was surprised at first to hear actual sound coming from Caileen's mouth. He thought she was mute. His surprise turned into fearful hope as the sound rose in pitch and amplitude until his ears hurt. The sound was like none other Scott had ever heard. It didn't even sound human, but like some deep, rumbling giant. The ground all around the complex began to shake. As Scott watched, the forty sentinels flying toward Caileen were shaken apart by her scream. Several more on the ground and in Caileen's line of fire also blew apart when the sound waves hit them.

After a few seconds the screaming stopped and the mutants looked up at Caileen in awe. Caileen flew towards the mutants and landed on her feet a little shaky. Scott helped her up while everyone gathered around her. "Caileen," Scott said. "If you can keep doing that, you can take out most of the sentinels while we mop up the rest." Caileen nodded and faced the advancing mass of mutant hunting robots. She took in a deep breath and let out another monstrous scream, causing everyone to cover their ears, even though they were behind her. The scream was cut short when a bolt of energy cut through Caileen's chest. She coughed up blood as her eyes went wide with pain. Logan caught her as she fell and lowered her to the ground. Scott looked up and blasted the sentinel who had been flying above them.

Caileen's coughs continued for a moment or two, then her eyes rolled back and her body went limp in Logan's arms. Her last breath was overruled by an insidious laugh. The mutants looked up to see the human who Logan had kicked earlier standing in front of the sentinels, all of whom had ceased firing. "Well, isn't this cozy? I've always wondered what these new bad boys would be capable of doing, and now I know. I'm sure this will look very good on my report." Laughing, the human snapped his fingers as he walked over to the side and the sentinels all fired their lasers at once.

The mutants instinctively jumped back as the blasts came in. Sam threw her hands up in a desperate attempt to throw up a force field. She knew she would be able to do anything but try, there were at least one hundred sentinels left, all firing at once. She was not the only person surprised when the lasers stopped several feet short of the mutants. They stopped as if they had hit something. _Wow_, thought Sam. _I'm better than I thought._

                Looking rather confused, the human turned to the closest sentinel. "What happened? Why are they still standing there?"

                The sentinel looked at the mutants and scanned the area, finding a large force field in place. "THERE IS A CLASS TEN FORCE FIELD IN PLACE. THE FORCE FIELD HAS SUFFICENT ENERGY TO DEFLECT ANY ATTACK WE CAN GIVE."

                The human looked with awe at the mutants. "Which one is producing the field?"

                "NO MUTANT PRESENT IS CAPABLE OF GENERATING THIS FORCE FIELD."

                "No," said an odd sounding voice from above. Everyone looked up to see a young bald man with no shirt floating down and landing on the ground. His eyes were glowing white and energy rippled across his body. "They're not, but I am." The voice of this newest mutant sounded like there were two voices speaking at the same time. The human pulled his own gun and shot right at the mutant's head, hoping to catch him by surprise. The bullet bounced off a force field covering the newest mutant. "Please. Do you think me that weak? Or are you that stupid? Your weapons and sentinels will in the end spell death for both humans and mutants alike. So, I take them away."

                Johnathan leaned his head back and closed his eyes. Scott, standing five feet behind him, realized that Johnathan was going to blow again. He didn't have time to do anything but watch as Johnathan converted into pure energy and blew apart in a blinding light that covered all around him and the other mutants. Then Scott realized that the energy wasn't touching them, it moved around them without hurting them.

                When the light retracted back into Johnathan and he reverted into human shape again, everyone saw that the land had also not been touched by the blast. The sentinels were gone, the building was gone, but the field and even the human were untouched. Johnathan fell to his knees in exhaustion as his eyes dimmed to their normal color. Looking up, Johnathan saw Caileen's dead body and stood up to run towards her. He felt a burning, cutting pain rip through his right lung accompanied by a thunderclap.


	10. Miracles and Funerals

Scott turned to see the human with his smoking gun pointed directly at Johnathan's back. Reacting in anger, Scott touched his visor, opening it more than he normally would against a human. The human flew back and slammed into the ground unconscious. Checking his communicator and finding it working, Scott body slid everyone back to the Blackbird. While the New Mutants strapped themselves in and Logan put the two bodies in the back, Scott lifted the jet into the air and set off towards the mansion. After strapping the two bodies into seats at the back of the jet, Logan settled into the copilot seat and radioed the mansion to tell them to prepare the infirmary for wounded. Even if Johnathan, Caileen, and Danielle were dead, Steve still had a chance and needed to be tended to.

                Landing in the hidden hangar, Scott killed the engine as Mary and Lucas helped Steve hobble out of the jet and to the infirmary. Scott and Logan each carried one of the dead bodies out of the jet and towards the infirmary, where the final autopsies would be done. Logan could barely contain himself. His first time as a teacher and already he'd lost three students. He couldn't understand how Chuck had done it year after year. Training each new generation of mutants only to see several of each generation cut down in the prime of their lives. Maybe that was why Chuck had decided to let someone else take over recently.

                Looking back, Logan saw Daemon come shuffling out of the Blackbird, leaning on Sam. Logan couldn't imagine what Daemon was going through. He had just lost his little sister, and after being promised that she would be safe at the school. This had been a terrible day and Logan couldn't see the light at the end of the tunnel. How could he continue to train these kids and watch them get slaughtered by this new army of sentinels?

                In the infirmary, Steve's leg was patched up and he was given a shot for the pain. He walked over on his crutches to look at his sister's body lying there on the slab, cold and lifeless. He couldn't bring himself to look at the smoking hole in his sister's chest. But something caught his eye. Or, more accurately, the lack of something caught his eye. While his sister's chest was burnt and smoking, there was no hole. Yet he distinctly remembered there being a hole earlier. As he watched, the patch of smoking flesh healed itself to a slight burn and stopped smoking. Suddenly, Caileen's eyes popped open and she breathed a deep breath of air. She sat up and looked around at her surroundings. Seeing her alive, Steve couldn't stop himself and jumped up on the slab and hugged his sister for all he was worth.

                Caileen managed to pry her brother off her and began to sign, asking what had happened. "What happened?" Steve asked with an incredulous voice. "You died! That's what happened! And now you're here. What happened?" Caileen signed that she didn't know, only that she had been shot through the chest, passed out and woke up in the school. She asked what had happened with the sentinels. "The sentinels shot you dead. Then Johnathan showed up and blasted them all away. Then he got shot by a human who Scott took care of later."

                Looking over at Johnathan, Steve and Caileen were shocked with everyone else in the infirmary to see Johnathan begin to move and moan, then wake up and sit up. Just like with Caileen, his chest had patched over and now only had a scar.

                Logan walked over and looked from Johnathan to Caileen and back again. "Well, does either of you want to tell us what just happened?" The two just shrugged their shoulders. "I really have no idea," said Johnathan. "I got shot out in the field, then I woke up here." 

Scott looked at Johnathan and asked, "Not that we're not grateful that you showed up and took out every single sentinel, but how did you know where we were or even that we were in danger? They had jammed our communicators and blocked Lucas's telepathy." "I don't know. I just knew where to go and that I was needed." He decided to leave out the part of having a dream of his two thousand year descendant. It might sound a little too weird.

A few days later, the entire school held funeral services for Danielle. Charles gave the sermon and Scott gave the eulogy. The entire teaching staff at Xavier's school for the gifted understood what they were up against with this new sentinel model. They knew that the students had to be made ready for upcoming fights. Daemon had decided to stay at the school, to make sure that his sister had not died for nothing. He would take out those sentinels and make sure they didn't hurt anyone else ever again. Caileen began training with Sean Cassidy, a teacher for Generation X, because he also had a sonic scream. She hoped that she would soon be able to speak.

Johnathan was given an inhibitor suit to wear under his clothes. Hank had determined that Johnathan didn't actually generate his energies, but channeled them from some other source.  The suit would limit the amount of power he could gather.

All of the students now understood what it meant to be an X-man and train to save the world. It involved hurt and sacrifice. They had to be willing to lay it all on the line, and then be slapped in the face by the very ones they had just saved. It was a thankless life, but one that gave them all hope.

Johnathan couldn't help but remember his descendant's words while he looked at Danielle's grave. _In the end, they all died._ Had he actually stopped the future? Someone had still died, even with Johnathan's help. Would everyone else die too? Could he still save everyone and the future? He thought about all of this while he wondered if he would ever hear from his descendant again. Otherwise, he would just be muddling through this without any idea of what was to come and how to stop it.

That scared him more than anything else.


End file.
